A user-friendly guide to organising an eco-friendly Christmas.

So, you’ve taken steps to reduce the impact your lifestyle has on the environment; you wash your clothes at 30 degrees, you walk on short journeys, you carry re-usable bags, you’ve changed your light bulbs to energy saving ones, and perhaps you have even had an eco-friendly party using products from Little Cherry!

But what about an eco-friendly Christmas? Traditionally a time of over indulgence in every way, it’s obvious why we would get wrapped up in the excitement and relax our habits towards being friendly to our planet… but this year why not try to organise a green Christmas.

It is estimated that we make a massive 3 million tones of rubbish over the festive period, and sadly much of this ends up dumped in landfill rather than recycled. Did you know that approximately 1 billion Christmas cards could end up in the bin this year?

So follow our eco-friendly Christmas tips and choose to make it a Green Christmas in 2007!

Christmas Tree, Christmas Tree
Almost 8 million Christmas Trees will be used this year resulting in an estimated 12 million tones of rubbish. Don’t choose an artificial tree, massive amounts of fossil fuels are used in their production and they only last a few years - you can’t beat the wonderful smell of a real tree - make sure you choose a Christmas tree with roots, and help the environment by planting it afterwards!

Did you know that real trees are completely carbon neutral? So collect one from your local FSC accredited supplier and if replanting your tree after Christmas isn’t an option, contact your local council or www.letsrecycle.com for tree recycling schemes.

Decorations
Bring nature back into your home by decorating with real holly and ivy, collect attractive branches from your local park and dip them into vegetable based water paints for an unusual display.

Invest in re-usable decorations such as our 100% cotton Christmas Bunting, which is hand made in the UK. Use cotton or wooden decorations, not only are they better for the environment but they also look much more stylish.

Choose low energy LED Christmas lights and remember to turn them off when you are out or at night.

Cards
Send e-cards rather than traditional cards and make sure you recycle any cards after the festive season by using them as gift tags, or The Woodland Trust, the UK’s leading conservation charity, arranges for the recycling of used Christmas cards via Tesco and WH Smith. Visit www.woodland-trust.org.uk/recycling for more details.

Gifts
Less is more this year – choose charitable gifts which help others, such as those through Oxfam Unwrapped. Children also love the idea of helping animals, and through the World Wildlife Fund you can adopt a range of endangered species including orangutans and pandas (www.wwf.org.uk/adoption).

Pass any unwanted toys or gifts to charity chops, your local hospital or school; try to choose gifts that are recycled such as our pencil case which is made from recycled car tyres! Instead of mass produced plastic toys, choose wooden ones made from sustainable wood and painted in non-toxic paints, such as our best selling Fire Engine or Cement Mixer, or how about our wooden jewelry or skipping ropes?

Wrapping Paper
Around 83km2 of wrapping paper will be used this year – make a difference and wrap your gifts in a re-usable 100% cotton bag or in recycled wrapping paper. If you can, save any wrapping paper from gifts you receive and re-use it next year, if you get too excited when unwrapping your presents so this isn’t possible, make sure you recycle any paper after use.

Batteries
We get through more batteries at this time of year than any other; batteries contain toxic chemicals, don’t biodegrade and are difficult to recycle. Make sure you cut down on your toxic waste by only using rechargeable batteries.

Food
Visit your local Farmers Market (find one through the Soil Association or www.farmersmarkets.net) and buy locally produced organic food. Not only will you be reducing the amount of packaging you take home but organic foods contain higher levels of nutrients than other foods, so your taste buds and body will thank you for it too! An organic turkey is an absolute must, and as 4,200 tonnes of aluminium foil is thrown away over the festive period - make sure your aluminium foil is washed and recycled after use!

Compost all your green waste and any leftovers rather than sending them to the landfill, your local council should have cheap compost bins available.

Packaging
Did you know that around 125,000 tonnes of plastic packaging will be wasted this year? Try not to buy anything with excessive packaging and buy your vegetables loose. Make sure you carry re-usable bags with you on all shopping trips to reduce your plastic bag usage.

Christmas Party!
Make your Christmas Party a green one, use our biodegradable organic bamboo plates or our plates made from recycled organic yoghurt pots. Make sure cutlery is recycled and re-usable and choose recycled napkins. Browse through our comprehensive range of products and celebrate in style this year!

Finally…
Try to make a difference by extending the reduce, re-use, recycle mantra to Christmas this year, lets teach our children how to look after the planet and its resources, that’s the most stylish way to celebrate!

Wishing you a very merry green, eco-friendly Christmas!

Lucy Brindley - www.littlecherry.co.uk